I was on the college debate team. I spent the last three months’ worth of Friday nights, not in a miniskirt and halter top in Belltown, but parked on the couch watching the Sci Fi Channel. (Battlestar Galactica frackin’ rules!) I sing in a choir that performs early Renaissance music. I speak a bit of elvish and own Final Fantasy Tactics for the Game Boy Advance. A generation ago, this would have meant lonely evenings rewatching The Empire Strikes Back on VHS (which, BTW, I have memorized). But no more! Suddenly, my socially awkward companions and I have street cred. Or so says Garth Sundem in his The Geeks’ Guide to World Domination (Three Rivers, $13.95). His encyclopedia of random factoids, logic games, and brain teasers is subtitled “Be Afraid, Beautiful People.” Perhaps nerd really is the new black. Can you rattle off a list of Harry Potter dueling spells? Wish you could? Sundem’s got you covered—incendio! LAURA ONSTOT

Fri., April 17, 6:30 p.m., 2009